The Mummy Returns(2001)

Name: The Mummy Returns
Director: Stephen Sommers
Genre: Action, Adventure, Fantasy, Thriller
Released: May 4, 2001
Cast: Brendan Fraser, Rachel Weisz, John Hannah, Arnold Vosloo, Oded Fehr

Universal Pictures

2h 10m

Release Date: May 4, 2001 | Wide

46%
63%
A-
6.4

The mummified body of Imhotep is shipped to a museum in London, where he once again wakes and begins his campaign of rage and terror.

Releases

Original Release | May 4, 2001

25th Anniversary | Mar 27, 2026

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Box Office Results

Updated as of May 24, 2026 11:24 AM ET

All Releases (2)
Total US & Canada:
$202,804,895
Total International
$241,261,119
Total Worldwide:
$444,070,026

Total US & Canada:
$202,019,785
Total International
$230,993,489
Total Worldwide:
$433,013,274

Current Showtimes

orround

Tue Jul 7
Wed Jul 8
Thu Jul 9
Fri Jul 10
Sat Jul 11
Sun Jul 12
Mon Jul 13

Director & Top Cast

Stephen Sommers
Director

Brendan Fraser
Rick O'Connell

Rachel Weisz
Evelyn Carnahan, Nefertiri

John Hannah
Jonathan

Arnold Vosloo
Imhotep

Oded Fehr
Ardeth Bay

Patricia Velasquez

Meela, Anck-Su-Namun

Freddie Boath

Alex

Alun Armstrong

Mr. Hafez

Dwayne Johnson

The Scorpion King

Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje

Lock-Nah

Shaun Parkes

Izzy

Bruce Byron

Red

Joe Dixon

Jacques

Tom Fisher

Spivey

Aharon Ipalé

Pharaoh

Quill Roberts

Shafek

Donna Air

Show Girl

Technical Specifications

Sound Mix: DTS,Dolby Digital,SDDS

Aspect Ratio: 2.39 : 1

Other Details

Country of Origin: United States,United Kingdom,Morocco,Jordan

Language: English,Arabic

Summaries

Plot Summary

In 3067 BC, a warrior known as the Scorpion King (Dwayne Johnson), led his army on a campaign to conquer the world. After 7 years of fighting, they were defeated & exiled to the desert of Ahm Shere. One by one they died of heat exhaustion, leaving only the Scorpion King. The Scorpion King swears an oath to Anubis, God of the underworld, exchanging his soul for the power to defeat his enemies. Anubis grants his wish, creating an oasis to hide the Scorpion King's pyramid and by giving him his army of jackal-like warriors to conquer Egypt and to exact his revenge. However, once his task is finished, Anubis claims his soul, and the army is returned to the Underworld.In 1933, Rick (Brendan Fraser) and Evelyn O'Connell (Rachel Weisz) & son Alex (Freddie Boath), discover and collect the Bracelet of Anubis at a pyramid in Egypt which sets off a trap causing Rick and Evelyn to narrowly escape the pyramid as it floods with water. Alex encounters three looters who flee after the walls start to collapse.Back in London, Alex plays with the bracelet, which locks onto his wrist, showing him visions that lead to Ahm Shere. Since it is the year of the Scorpion, Alex has seven days to reach the oasis, or the bracelet would kill him on the eighth day the moment the rays of the sunshine on him. At that point the Scorpion King and his army will also reawaken.Alex is captured by an Egyptian cult who have resurrected Imhotep: to use Imhotep's power to defeat the Scorpion King, which would give him command of the Army of Anubis. The cult, led by Baltus Hafez (Alun Armstrong), the curator of the British Museum, includes a psychopathic warrior named Lock-Nah (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje) and Meela Nais (Patricia Velásquez), the reincarnation of Imhotep's love Anck-Su-Namun. Rick frees Evelyn before she is sacrificed, and they fight against Imhotep. Meanwhile, Alex is kidnapped and forced to lead the cult with the bracelet as it cannot be removed from his hand.The O'Connells set out to rescue Alex, accompanied by Evelyn's brother Jonathan (John Hannah) who had gotten his hands on a golden scepter and their old mate-in-arms, the Medjai Ardeth Bay (Oded Fehr). Rick's associate from his past adventures, Izzy (Shaun Parkes), an airship pilot, provides transportation.The O'Connells pursue them with Rick's associate Izzy. Alex secretly leaves clues for his parents, who follow in Izzy's dirigible. Ardeth sends a message to a growing army of his fellow Medjai, intended to stop the army of Anubis as it awakens. Imhotep uses the Book to restore Anck-Su-Namun's soul into Meela's body. By doing so, he unwittingly allows Evelyn to unlock the memories of her previous life as Princess Nefertiri, the bracelet's keeper.Rick finds that Evelyn was Nefertiri, daughter of Seti. Nefertiri was the one who discovered Anck-Su-Namun's affair with Imhotep & warned Seti. Nefertiri & Anck are rivals to this day. Evelyn was protector of the Bracelet of Anubis. Rick is a Medjai, trusted to protect Evelyn. Together with their son Alex, who is the path to Ahm Shere, they make up the three sides of a pyramid.As the two groups arrive at the oasis where the Scorpion King's temple lies. At the edge of the Oasis, Imhotep realizes that they are being pursued and uses his powers to attack the dirigible. The dirigible eventually crashes into the oasis' jungle, and Izzy chooses to stay behind to repair it. The O'Connells, Ardeth, Alex, and the cult are eventually attacked by pygmy mummies. Rick retrieves Alex while Ardeth kills Lock-Nah.They escape from the pygmies, who kill all of the cult members except for Hafez, Imhotep, and Anck-Su-Namun. Rick and Alex race to the pyramid before the sun light reaches it, saving Alex's life and allowing the bracelet to release his hand. Anck-Su-Namun, Imhotep, and Hafez then arrive and kill Evelyn before entering the pyramid.Hafez gets the bracelet & unleashes the army of Anubis, which appears in the desert outside of the Oasis. Inside the pyramid, Imhotep's powers are stripped from him by Anubis, forcing him to fight the Scorpion King as a mortal. Rick enters the temple as Imhotep summons the Scorpion King, now in the form of a half-human, half-scorpion monster.Imhotep feigns allegiance to the King, who then focuses his wrath on Rick. Jonathan uses the Book of Life to bring back Evelyn who fights Anck. While Rick and the King fight, Hafez is caught in the melee and dies. At the same time, Ardeth and the remnants of the Medjai army defeat the first wave of Anubis warriors, only to discover what they fought was only the vanguard, and now the full force of Anubis' army is bearing down on them. Outnumbered, the Medjai prepare to make their last stand.Meanwhile, Jonathan and Alex steal the Book from Anck-Su-Namun and use it to resurrect Evelyn. Jonathan distracts Anck-Su-Namun while Alex uses the Book of the Dead to revive his mother and Evelyn engages in a battle with Anck-Su-Namun.Rick discovers hieroglyphs explaining that Jonathan's scepter is the mystic Spear of Osiris, the only weapon capable of killing the King. Jonathan has been carrying the scepter throughout the journey.Although Jonathan's attempt to throw the spear results in Imhotep catching it and nearly delivering the blow himself, Rick is able to intercept it and stab the Scorpion King himself. He orders him (and his army) back to the underworld, turning both the Scorpion King and the Army of Anubis into sand, seconds before they hit the Medjai lines.As the oasis begins to implode and the pyramid crumbles, Rick and Imhotep cling to the ledge of a pit that leads to the underworld. Rick implores Evelyn to escape, but she risks her life to pull him to safety. Seeing this, Imhotep pleads for Anck-Su-Namun to do the same, but she abandons him. Heartbroken, Imhotep lets go and plummets into the underworld. While fleeing, Anck-Su-Namun inadvertently falls into a pit of scarabs and dies.The family climbs to the top of the pyramid. Izzy then arrives with the repaired dirigible and rescues the O'Connells just before the oasis and the pyramid are destroyed, though not before Jonathan swipes a diamond. They depart into the sunset, with Ardeth saluting them before riding away.

Storyline

Many years ago, in Ancient Egypt, the Scorpion King led a menacing army, but when he sold his soul to Anubis, he was erased from history. Now he is only a myth...or is he? Rick and Evelyn O'Connell are still discovering new artifacts, along with their 8 year old son Alex. They discover the Bracelet of Anubis. But someone else is after the bracelet. High Priest Imhotep has been brought back from the dead once again and wants the bracelet, to control the Scorpion King's army. That's not the only problem. Imhotep now has Alex and with the bracelet attached to him, doesn't have long to live. — Film_Fan This big-budget sequel from writer/director Stephen Sommers navigates much of the same cliffhanger territory as George Lucas and Steven Spielberg's Indiana Jones franchise. It is 1933, eight years after the events of The Mummy (1999). Legionnaire Rick O'Connell Brendan Fraser has married his Egyptologist girlfriend Evelyn Carnahan (Rachel Weisz) and the couple has settled in London, where they're raising their young son Alex (Freddie Boath). The family's domestic tranquility is shattered when the 3,000-year-old mummified corpse of Imhotep (Arnold Vosloo), which has been shipped to the British Museum, is resurrected once again to resume his evil quest for immortality. In the meantime, another ancient threat emerges in the form of the Scorpion King (professional wrestler Dwayne Johnson, aka. the Rock), a mighty warrior frozen in time with his supernatural army. In order to save his family, Rick is forced to seek a mythical pyramid of gold, facing marauding bands of pygmy skeletons, among other hazards. — ahmetkozan Eight peaceful years after Imhotep's first reincarnation in The Mummy (1999) , Pharaoh Seti's evil high priest comes back from the dead once more, to disrupt the easy family life of the O'Connells and their eight-year-old son, Alex. As if that weren't enough, yet another destructive force--the ancient warlord, Scorpion King--breaths again, while in the meantime, a mystical artefact, the Bracelet of Anubis, seals the fate of both Evelyn and her innocent son. Now, it's up to brave Rick, Evelyn's brother, Jonathan, and the Medjay protector, Ardeth Bay, to save the day, as the world is on the brink of demise by hordes of millennium-old adversaries. Can they survive dark Anubis' wrath when the Mummy returns? — Nick Riganas An ancient artifact reawakens and begins to wreak major havoc on everyone and the world. A team of archaeologists must reunite and team up to figure out the best way to defeat the ancient artifact and save everyone and the world before it is too late for everyone. — RECB3 2 more See all

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Fun Facts

Surprisingly, Dwayne Johnson’s Scorpion King was one of the earliest fully digital lead characters, created before motion-capture technology was mature—contributing to why the CGI looks noticeably different today.